Helpful Chromebook and Chrome Settings for Special Needs Students

The school year is in full force for me and I recently had a student

come to me for assistance with enabling settings in his Google account pertaining
to Chromebook Accessibility and Chrome extensions.
This is what I compiled. I hope you find it helpful!

Allow the student to login to their Chromebook.

Go the Chrome Webstore and Install the following: (more info below)

• Beeline Reader
• OpenDyslexic Font 
• Mercury Reader

Go into the Chromebook settings, by clicking on the bottom right, where the clock is, and selecting ‘Accessibility’.  Either of these are optional for the student.

To listen to the ENTIRE PAGE:

• Click on ‘Chromevox’ to Turn on/off screen reader press the CTRL + ALT + Z keys for the keyboard shortcut. 

To listen to PART of the PAGE: 

• Click on ‘Select to Speak’ to turn on/off.  To listen to specific text, highlight the words, sentence, or paragraph, press the Search key + s.
• Enable ‘Dictation’ - will allow voice typing in any field
• Enable High Contrast Mode
• Enable On-Screen Keyboard
• Enable Large Mouse Cursor
• Enable Highlight Mouse Cursor

Zoom in on the browser: CTRL + SHIFT and Plus +
Zoom out on the browser: CTRL + SHIFT and Minus -

Beeline Reader: 

• It may ask you to select a “work”, “school”, or “home” account.  Just keep closing any messages or pop-ups from this extension.

Mercury Reader:  

• Click on the rocketship to enable/disable the extension. It will remove any distractions from the page.
• It will work on any website.

OpenDyslexic Font:   

• Click on the O icon at the top right.
• Enable the on/off switch
• Right now, it is not working properly in Google Docs.  All of your words are being cut-off on the right side. However, you can still enable it for everything else on the web. 

Try Lexend Font for Google Docs

Set it up as your default font in Google Docs. Follow the steps below

• Create a new document or go into a current document with the formatting you want.
• Drag your cursor through a couple of sentences that are set up the way you want them, with the font and line spacing you prefer.
• Go to Format > Paragraph styles > Normal text.
• Select "Update 'Normal text' to match."
• Next, go to Format > Paragraph styles > Options.
• Select "Save as my default styles."

CS First and Google for Education Updates for Back to School

The CS First and Google for Education teams both made some significant updates to the apps for back to school. 

In this episode of The Suite Talk, I go over the changes to the following:

• an overview of the new CS First dashboard and interface
• creating a class
• the progress bar
• sending feedback
• adding activities 
• two new activities available which are  Characterization, and Interactive Presentation
• student rosters
• student login and joining a  class
• resources available
• Google Expeditions can be used on Android enabled Chromebooks to run and guide tours. 
• Also, the narration feature for the points of interest on the tours.
• Google Classroom rubrics is now available in beta. Click here to read  more about it and to sign up for the beta program. 
• The Lexend font is a new font that is now available for Google Docs. The font can help readers with special needs.  Click here to read more about it. 

Watch this episode on YouTube or listen to it on your favorite podcast platform. 

I hope you find this episode helpful.  For more episodes, please visit my website at www.thesuitetalk.com